Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 12/16/15

In Attendance:

Janet Bermudez - Hands On Hartford

Cordelia Brady - The Open Hearth

Aisha Brown - CHR Enfield

Manual Burnias - CRT Security Deposit Guarantee

Crane Cesario - DMHAS, Hartford COC

Marcel Cicero - CRT East Hartford Shelter

Roger Clark - ImmaCare

Melinda Clarke - CRT

Stephanie Corbin - Community Health Network

Joel Cox - Town of Enfield Social Services

Tylon Crump - CRT McKinney Shelter

Catherine Damato

Anna Ebora - Journey Home

Jacqueline Farmer - Veterans Inc.

Valorie Gaines - CHR PATH

Shihan Ghazi - Mercy Housing

Amanda Girardin - Journey Home

Tenesha Grant - Mercy Housing

Mollie Greenwood - Journey Home

Amber Higgins - CHR

Mark Jenkins - Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition

Aaron Jones - US Department of Veterans Affairs

Brittany King - The Open Hearth

Philomena McGee - CHR Enfield

Matt Morgan - Journey Home

Patrice Moulton - CRT East Hartford Shelter

Meghan Pellerin - My Sisters' Place / The Open Hearth

Heather Pilarcik - South Par Inn

Patricia Pollicina - Chrysalis Center

Cathy Shanley - Columbus HOuse

Lionel Rigler - City of Hartford

Chris Robinson - Chrysalis Centeer

Amy Robinson - US Department of Veterans Affairs

Iris Ruiz - Interval House

Michelle Simon - Catholic Charities

Rob Soderberg - CHR

Sandra Terry - CRT Supportive HOusing

Jose Vega - CRT McKinney Shelter

Ymonne Wilson - CRT

Tamara Womack - My Sisters' Place

1. Welcome and Introductions- Today we have some exciting news regarding funding for the Greater Hartford CAN.
1. As we announced at a previous meeting, the Department of Housing recently made some funding available to each CAN throughout the state to help support essential functions of the GH CAN such as meeting facilitation, administrative functions, coordinated entry, and navigation.  In our region, the amount of funding we received from the Department of Housing was roughly $170,000.  While helpful, many agency leaders did not feel that this funding would be sufficient to continue implementing the necessary changes in our system, and so a dozen GH CAN agencies put together a collaborative application to the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving for additional CAN funding.  We received confirmation yesterday that Hartford Foundation would be awarding the GH CAN an additional $190,000 to add additional needed capacity around CAN administration, navigation, and shelter triage.  
1. Journey Home is the fiduciary agency for this funding and will be posting a Request for Proposals to hire navigation staff on the Journey Home website by the end of this week.
2. In addition to this update, 211's most recent monthly report shows that call wait times for shelter or housing related calls are at an all-time low, with an average call wait time of two minutes, and a longest call wait time of 19 minutes. 
2. Housing Referral Group - 
1. Hudson View Commons received a referral at the last GH CAN meeting, but was denied by the property manager, and needs a new referral at this time.  
2. We need to figure out a better method for reviewing pending referrals, rather than going name-by-name down the list.  One suggestion was to have housing staff review the list before or after the GH CAN meeting and provide feedback where needed- another option was to have a conference call.  By next meeting we hope to have a better way to structure these check-ins.
3. Chronic Homeless Final Rule - 
1. HUD has released a final rule on the definition of chronic homelessness.  In many ways, the definition is the same, but there have been a few key changes.
1. Households need to have a homeless history of either one continuous year of homelessness, or four occasions of homelessness in the past 3 years which total to twelve months.  This means that people who have a short history of homelessness, but multiple occasions, will not be considered chronically homeless unless their occasions total to 12 months.  
2. HUD did not set a minimum number of days that constitute an occasion of homelessness, but did clarify that a break between occasions needed to be 7 days or longer where an individual was not literally homeless.  
3. For January 13th, Journey Home will evaluate our registry and see how this definition has impacted the prioritization of households who are chronically homeless.  
4. Hartford COC Vote to Join Balance of State
1. At this month's Hartford Continuum of Care meeting, the continuum voted to join Balance of State.  This means that moving forward Hartford will become a sub-COC.  
2. This change will mean that for some housing programs whose certificates were designated for use only in Balance of State communities, these housing programs may be able to use their certificates within the City of Hartford in the future.
5. CT HMIS Release of Information
1. In the past, HMIS was a closed database system, where clients had the ability to choose how to restrict the sharing of their information between different agencies. The previous HMIS Release of Information reflected this option to restrict data sharing.  
2. As we have switched to a Coordinated Access Network system, it is no longer as practical or feasible to have a variety of sharing restrictions, because HMIS is becoming a more open system in order to better collaborate and prevent duplication.  To better reflect this change to an open system, Connecticut's Homeless Management Information System database (CT HMIS) has created an updated release of information, which is an opt-in or opt-out for data sharing.  This release was recently approved by the state Attorney General, and is available on www.cthmis.com.
3. You do not need to get new releases for all current clients, as the previous release is good for 3 years from when they are signed.  These releases will also be valid three years after signing.
4. As a best practice, you should only be using the new releases moving forward, and if you continue to work with a client they are able to sign the new release if they are interested.
5. Spanish versions of the release will be emailed out as soon as possible.  Thanks to CCEH for sending those to us so quickly!
6. CAN Policy Subgroup Representation-
1. There has been a statewide group meeting to discuss governance and policy as it relates to the CANs in the state.  This group did a lot of work with the Department of Housing in order to seek funding for the CANs, and currently the group is focusing on bylaws for CAN, determining what participation in CANs means, and how to become a member of a CAN.  
2. Each CAN in the state currently has two votes, and we have had a number of representatives for Greater Hartford.  Matt Morgan of Journey Home, Crane Cesario of DMHAS, Tenesha Grant of Mercy Housing, Fred Faulkner of The Open Hearth, and Mollie Greenwood of Journey Home have all attended some or all of these meetings on behalf of our CAN.  
7. Diversion Training
1. CCEH is working to put together a training on how to do diversion without any financial resources.  The focus of the training is on utilizing natural supports, mediation, alternative housing solutions, and mainstream resources.  CCEH is seeking the same training that other agencies in the state have had around these diversion techniques, and the training was popular in other areas.
2. 22 staff from Greater Hartford CAN indicated an interest in possibly attending this training.
8. Announcements:
1. Lionel Rigler shared some information about the City of Hartford ESG Prevention Program.  This is a program available to individuals and families in the City of Hartford who are not yet literally homeless, but who are not in stable housing, like people staying doubled up who are not lease holders.  In order to be screened for the program, which is short term financial assistance with case management, clients should call 211, dial 3, then 1, and ask to be screened for the program.  Households must have strong employment history, and be able to become self-supporting by the end of the program.  In the past year, about 25 households have been served by this program.
2. The Point In Time Count is coming up in January, and we will be doing an unsheltered count again this year.  Cat Damato of CRT is the City of Hartford PIT contact, and Yasmine Ali of Journey Home is the Greater Hartford BOS PIT contact (covering the part of our CAN that is not the City of Hartford).
3. Data Quality Cases- There is a known error in CA HMIS regarding Data Quality.  Mollie is working with Nutmeg and CCEH to try and resolve the situation.  Soon, all cases from more than 6 months ago will be removed from the data quality report, which will greatly reduce the number of errors showing on our report.
4. CCEH will be administering training on the VI-SPDAT 2.0 in the coming months.  Everyone who will be administering VI-SPDATs should attend either an in-person training or a webinar.
5. The Annual Homeless Person's Memorial will take place Sunday, December 20th.  Nate Fox of Center Church is collecting the names of anyone who passed away this year who was enrolled in shelter, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, or staying unsheltered in the past year.
6. Sara Salomons of Journey Home has a large number of donated items including clothing and housewares for case managers to take after the meeting.  She will meet you in the parking lot outside!
7. Enfield has secured a location for a warming center in Enfield from the end of January to the end of February.  The warming center will be open every night, and will have capacity for about 15 people.  The hours will be 9 PM- 7AM with volunteers working overnight. 
8. Our next GH CAN meeting will be held at CRT's Lumsden Center.